ARCHIVE July, 2011

When I was just a young (punk) kid growing up in Sanford, FL I loved listening to Punk music. One of my favorite bands, MxPx, had this song called, “Responsibility.” The lyrics went, “Responsibility, what’s that? Responsibility, no not quite, yet.” This was my anthem growing up. I figured when I left the Central Florida area, left my small, local church I’d start thinking and worrying about responsibility. My Dad always told me, “When you have your own power bill I’m going to come over and leave all the lights on and open the fridge door and turn the air down to 72!” This was a joke to me, until I got my own place and started paying for all those things, now, I thank Jesus everyday that he doesn’t come over and do that!

I’ve found the key to any growth or maturity is responsibility. Until you feel the urgency of responsibility, you are incapable of growing.

Be responsible for how things are in your life right now. Your city, family, job, savings, life is all because of you. The church in Sanford, FL called Palmetto Avenue Baptist Chuch is what it is, because of it’s regular attenders. Take responsibility.

The words of legendary coach John Wooden ring true today, “Control the things we can control. If you try to change the things you can not control, then it will soon affect the things you can control.” We need to accept responsibility and change the things we can. There is an infinite list of things we can not change, take responsibility, change things for the better.

Dear Friends at Palmetto Avenue Baptist Church,

Thank you so much for your warm welcome when we visited Sanford last month. We so enjoyed the breakfast fellowship and the opportunity to chat with some of you. You have been such a large part of our lives and ministries for so long, and it was like coming home to spend a little time with you.

Thank you also for the lunch with some of you after church. It was nice to get to meet some more of the Palmetto Church Family! We especially enjoyed getting to visit with the Pastor’s grandson! What a charmer.

Thank you for the generous live offering. We are so grateful. Most of all, thank you for your faithful support and prayers these many long years. We are encouraged to have you behind us as wel continue to work out God’s calling in our lives. Pray with us about South Sudan and that God will lead us concerning His will for us and a ministry there. We are looking forward to taking a trip there in August or September.

We trust that God will continue to bless and enable you as you reach out, not only to your area but to the world with the gospel of Jesus Christ. We count it a privilege to be part of your ministry. We will look forward to seeing some of you in Africa again soon!

What’s the first thing that comes to your mind when you hear DAV (Disabled American Veterans)? Veterans from WWII, Vietnam – old men in wheel chairs, maybe sixty, seventy years old, older? Well, I had the immense pleasure of attending a Wheelchair Rugby game, DAV vs Sanford River Rats and Team USA Armed Forces Good Will Ambassadors on Friday, July 8. I was rocked awake, shocked back to reality! These Disabled American Veterans are my age, MY AGE! Hello! Afghanistan, Iraq. It felt like a personal slap in my face, as it should have hit me a long time ago, but this is the moment for me, that it finally sank in. I am so completely humbled and honored to have been in the presence and to have watched our heroes and our youth, our local ball players, our good will ambassadors come together, strap themselves in a wheelchair and TRY to keep up with these amazing DAV wheelchair rugby players! Sanford’s Palmetto Avenue Baptist Church hosted the game in their gym and their Pastor, Ron Williams, City of Sanford’s Mayor, Jeff Triplett, and River Rat’s GM, John Welton, watched from the sidelines as the Veterans, without breaks, exhausted most every ballplayer on the other teams! The Veterans were so kind as to occasionally backwards roll a ball through the goal line. What an awesome game to watch, full of energy, excitement from the players and the crowd, banging and clanging and clattering like you’ve never heard, but mostly a tug on your heart like you’ll want time and again! You’ll not want to miss this event should it come around again next year to become an annual City of Sanford, River Rats BaseBall, Team USA Armed Forces Good Will Ambassadors, and Disabled American Vets Wheelchair Rugby Event held at Palmetto Avenue Baptist Church in Sanford Florida!!

Written by: Sandy Adcox

(This article was first published in the Sanford Herald on July 24, 2011. Posted here with permission from the author.)

Do you want to get more out of your personal bible study time? Have you ever wondered how it is that some Christians, pastors, or bible study leaders seem to be able to identify so much more truth in God’s word? Well, there’s a three step process that can put you on a path to understanding and applying God’s word to your life. This will help you to be a doer of the word and not a hearer only (James 1:22).

Here are the three steps of inductive Bible study:

1). Observation: What does it say?

This first step is a simple one. Read the text carefully a time or two in a Bible version that you can understand. (There are many great versions and translations available. The one that I use personally and recommend is the NET Bible. If you want to know why I like this one best, ask me some time.) As you read, look for the following things:

Are there any commands?

Are there any promises?

Are there any repeated words or phrases?

Are there any results or conclusions (look for therefore or so that)?

What is the main idea of the passage?

2). Interpretation: What does it mean?

This can be a challenging step, and it’s the one that people sometimes fail to carry out correctly. To perform this step, you may need to seek out a few Bible study tools (commentary, concordance, etc.). But, don’t get too intimidated at this step. Simply, consider the following questions:

Are there any terms, words, or phrases that need to be defined?

How does the passage fit into the broader context of the chapter & book?

What was the author of this book trying to say?

What did the audience understand the author to have been saying?

3). Application: What does it mean to me?

Now, it is time to apply the timeless truth of the passage to life. Though all of the Bible may not be written directly to us, it is certainly written for us. And, we must ask a few questions to learn how this passage should change our lives:

What attitude does this passage instruct me to have?

What action does this passage instruct me to take?

What does this passage instruct me to believe?

What does this passage instruct me to avoid?

At this step of application, also look for the How and the Why. In addition to telling us what to do, believe, and avoid, the Bible also frequently tells us how and why to apply the truth of the passage. So, look for that.

Certainly, this is not an exhaustive guide, but it should be a great start to helping you learn more from your Bible study time. So, try taking these steps sometime this week, and let me know how it goes. And of course, feel free to ask me any questions that arise from your personal study of the Bible.

When you’re in a relationship long enough, you can look back at it and kind of track its progression through various stages. In an ideal romantic relationship, couples tend to experience different types of attraction – physical, emotional, spiritual. Titles come with that too – girlfriend, wife, lover, mother of your children, friend. I was recently reminded that we approach God with titles too – healer, savior, refuge, father, friend, et cetera – but I was also challenged to consider what titles I have especially approached God with. I came up with a few – Savior, Lord, Father, Friend, Master, and Employer – in that order.

Coming to Christ, it’s easy to be grateful and remember He’s the One who saved you from your sins. This gratefulness leads you to address Him as “Lord” and afford him the loving respect and obedience He deserves. As I obeyed Him, I realized He is not just a Savior and wise Lord, but a loving Father who can be trusted. So I listened with gratefulness and joy to hear what my Father would say. Then I learned He could be my Friend – that I could dialogue back and forth with Him about any and everything.

Then somehow it went wrong.

Being involved with God to that extent, you get excited, you want to be more and more involved. Unfortunately, that can translate into more and more DOING – which invariably leads to burnout. So I started resenting God, forgetting God the Father and Friend, only seeing the Taskmaster who would not give me a break. This even clouded my vision of God the Savior. And when you forget where you’ve been saved from, you forget that your obedience TO God doesn’t do anything FOR God. He doesn’t NEED me, I’m not His employee, helping Him out for payments of His favor.

But the thing is, He wants our love. Out of a heart filled with true love for God will flow everything He wants from us – it is not the other way around. How do you refer to God? Who do you see Him as? And what does that mean for the way you relate to Him?